Rants and Raves

A Rant against East Coast Bias

I keep up with American sports primarily through the Internet, especially via ESPN.com.  After reading the prognosticators’ views of Sunday’s NFC Championship match-up between the Carolina Panthers and the Seattle Seahawks, I’ve developed faulty thinking that the Panthers are headed to the Superbowl.  I’ve read this ad nauseum online.  The Panthers are the pre-season NFC favorites.  Wide Receiver Steve Smith is unstoppable.  Panthers Quarterback Jake Delhomme is a gambler in the playoffs with the highest quarterback rating of any quarterback in the playoffs.  The Panthers won two games on the road against the New York Giants and the Chicago Bears.  The Panthers outclass the Seahawks in more head-to-head matchups, including offense, defense, and special teams.  Shaun Alexander, who?  Matt Hasselbeck, who?  If you read the armchair quarterbacks’ predictions, the Panthers might as well skip the game in Seattle and start practicing for the Superbowl in Detroit.  The same goes for the Denver Broncos and Pittsburgh Steelers.  According to the spin doctors, the Steelers are going to roll in Denver this weekend.
 
I have a different theory.  I believe the sports media is deliberately rooting for East Coast teams to go to the Superbowl.  ESPN.com, CNNSI, and their ilk don’t know what to do with themselves if teams other than East Coast or California teams make the playoffs.  A Denver-Seattle Superbowl is their worst nightmare.  I mean, Denver?  Seattle?  Who outside those cities even cares about those teams?  The fact is, the East Coast and California are where the largest audiences are.  If New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, or San Francisco are eliminated, then Carolina (Charlotte) and Pittsburgh will have to do.  The media hyped the Chicago Bears before Carolina beat them and the Indianapolis Colts before Pittsburgh eliminated them.  Then they hyped the Washington Redskins over Seattle.  Now they’ve switched to rooting for the teams closest to their target audiences.  Well, guess what?  Seattle and Denver are both very good teams.  Perhaps they will lose on Sunday.  As a true blue and green Seahawk fan, I have to say that I never have confidence the ‘Hawks will pull out a win.  But ESPN and other oversubscribed sports media should not be jumping on a bandwagon like fair weather fans.  Their "experts" get paid the big bucks to be knowledgeable and report fairly.  Anything less is tabloid journalism.
 
If you think I’m dreaming, let me give you a nice little sampling:
 
"I would rather eat fish eyes than see Seattle’s Seahawks in my beloved Super Bowl. The Sea-frauds have had the luckiest road to the Super Bowl this side of a fast food contest winner. I’m convinced they’re the destiny-driven product of the NFL’s easiest schedule and weakest division, the NFC West."
 
From ESPN.com:  http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs05/series?series=carsea
"Surging Smith Gives Carolina the Edge."
"Carolina WR Steve Smith should line up on the right side often this week, meaning Seattle CB Andre Dyson will have to play the game of his life for the Seahawks to advance, Jeremy Green writes."
 
Five out of six Sports Illustrated experts pick the Carolina Panthers to beat the Seahawks in Seattle, which has a perfect record this year at Qwest Field, including wins over the Colts and the Redskins.  The same experts pick the Pittsburgh Steelers to steal victory from the Denver Broncos.  Incidentally, both Denver and Seattle have identical 14-3 records.  The Panthers and the Steelers are 12-5.  Odds and higher win totals apparently no longer mean much to sports media.
 
I can deal with hearing about the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox in gory detail, because I expect nothing less of outlets based in Connecticut (ESPN) and New York (Sports Illustrated).  But there’s no reason for the sports media’s sudden conversion to Panthers and Steelers fandom.  I’d rather side with the Las Vegas odds-makers, a Western locale that picked Seattle as a 3.5 point favorite.  The odds are that if Seattle wins on Sunday, the sports media will pick the AFC champion, first Pittsburgh, then Denver, to win the Superbowl.  The further east, the more likely to be favored.  It’s completely bunk.  Which is completely fine if all this trash talk helps the Seahawks play better this weekend.

Be kind to the person behind the counter

I only had 30 minutes for lunch today. I went to "Lotteria" on the Pusan waterfront, mistakenly thinking I could grab an unnutritious, bland, cheap, quick fast food lunch. I waited 25 minutes for my meal and had to take it to go. I brought it back to the hotel and didn’t have a chance to eat it until 2:30 p.m., long after lunchtime. The cashier behind the counter took an excrutiating long time to fill my order. I was really hungry while I helped customers myself.

Did I yell at her? Nope. Did I chastise her for taking so long? No, I didn’t. I told her I needed to change my order to go. She knew what I meant and apologized. I told her I under stood because many years ago I also worked in fast food. I remember what it was like dealing with irate customers. This poor girl had to run the entire store while 200 or more Korean schoolchildren milled around, waiting to go to the aquarium. She was cook and cashier. I watched how fast she had to work keeping up with customers, making and filling their order. She literally ran to the back area to make the food. I could have ranted at her for being slow in filling my order, but instead, I empathized. I felt sorry for her and was mad at her management for scheduling so few people to run the store. At the very least, the store manager should have been there to help out if the restaurant was short staffed. Instead, this girl had to work her heart out filling orders for impatient, disgruntled customers. I have been in her shoes myself. I know how frustrating it can feel. I did learn one thing from years of working in "hamburger hell"–be kind to the person working behind the counter, serving you. They’re people too, and you never know when they will pay your kindness forward or take your anger out on someone else.

Most of the Americans I helped in Pusan this week were nice and understanding, even when they waited awhile. However, one person in particular was not so kind. They cut in line to ask me a question, and they got angry because they did not wait to get all of the information they needed and were consequently inconvenienced when they found out they needed to provide me with additional information. Their response was very curt and abrasive, and they stated with irritation in their voice, "Fine, I’ll go to Seoul." They refused to wait patiently and finish in Pusan, instead opting to be even more inconvenienced by taking a train all the way up to Seoul. Guess who will be waiting for them in Seoul? Yours truly. Will they receive good service from me up there? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on whether I want to take my irritation out on them or repay them with kindness. I haven’t decided yet.

A Rant against Major League Baseball

This is a blog entry I’ve wanted to write since I wrote about CNOOC earlier this month.  I love baseball.  It’s my favorite sport (or pasttime, depending on your point of view).  According to MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, baseball is one of the most competitive of the four major U.S. sports (the other three include the National Football League, National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League).  Last season he said that baseball was competitive in recent years because there has been no dynasty since the New York Yankees won their fourth World Series Championship in five years back in 2000.  I was as breathless as any baseball fan when the Boston Red Sox came back last year from a 3-0 deficit to defeat the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series (anyone who despises the Yankees is a Sox fan). 
 
Still, something is unsettling to me as a diehard baseball fan–Major League Baseball’s lack of competitiveness.  Some purists are annoyed when MLB meddles with a sacred game by introducing innovations such as interleague play, playoff wild cards, and the designated hitter.  Those don’t bother me one bit.  What annoys me is the fact that year in and year out the same teams seem to either compete for a playoff spot, or they fold early, cellar dwell, and wind up being division losers.  The Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan & Co. notwithstanding, I am not really a fan of sports dynasties.  Of course, I have my own biases, and the baseball didn’t bounce my way this year.  I’m a big fan of the cellar-dwelling Seattle Mariners and Washington Nationals, two cellar dwellers.  I root for any team that play the New York Yankees or Atlanta Braves, and as usual they will likely make the playoffs.  But despite my biases, I still think I have a legitimate rant.
 
Here are the teams still in the 2005 Major League Baseball playoff race as we head into September:
  • Leading their division:  Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Angels, Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, and San Diego Padres
  • Still in the wild card race:  New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, Oakland Athletics, and Minnesota Twins

Here are the teams destined to lose their divisions this year:

  • Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Kansas City Royals, Seattle Mariners, New York Mets or Washington Nationals (formerly Montreal Expos), Pittsburgh Pirates, and Colorado Rockies
The 2005 division-leading teams have won their divisions or been a wild card a combined total of 15 times since 2000.  The wild card teams have won their divisions or been a wild card a combined total of 13 times since 2000.  10 teams have won a total of 28 division titles or wild card spots in the last five years.  During that time, 40 playoff spots were available.  Hence, ten teams, or one-third of all MLB teams, won 70% of all playoff spots since 2000.
 
Likewise, this year’s cellar dwellers have lost their divisions a total of 13 times since 2000, or about 45% of the time.  This figure does not even include perenniel losers such as the Detroit Tigers and Milwaukee Brewers who are nowhere near a playoff spot this year.
 
This isn’t to say that there aren’t surprises in Major League Baseball.  The New York Yankees are out of first place (for now).  The Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, and San Diego Padres are surprises.  The Washington Nationals, formerly the Montreal Expos, have far exceeded expectations.  But it’s still disconcerting to see that virtually every year the same 10 teams are competitive, while another 10 or so are not.  Just 8-10 teams each year could go either way, creating a modicum of competition.  The MLB playoff race offers great odds if you like to bet on baseball in Las Vegas.  However, if you’re a sports fan who likes real competition, you can’t help but feel like the deck is stacked in favor of the same teams each year.  To me, it isn’t worth watching that one Cinderella like the Red Sox, White Sox, or the Cubs surprises everyone.  
 
The lack of competitiveness in Major League Baseball cannot be not totally explained by team budgets and outrageous player salaries.  Each year the low-budget Oakland Athletics are just as competitive as the big-budget New York Yankees.  The big-budget Mets and Dodgers perennielly disappoint.  The Braves keep on winning even though their days of dipping into Ted Turner’s deep pockets is over.  I don’t have a simple answer as to why Major League Baseball is so uncompetitive.  Maybe I’ll write about it a future blog entry.  For now, suffice it to say that I am growing less and less interested in baseball even though I still consider myself a diehard fan.  Maybe my interest will renew when I see the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Detroit Tigers, Texas Rangers, New York Mets, Milwaukee Braves, and Colorado Rockies each win their divisions in the same year.  Then I’d be convinced professional baseball is truly competitive.
 
Here is the statistical breakdown of Major League Baseball’s winners and losers since 2000.
 
Division & Wild Card (WC) Winners (since 2000)
 
5 Times
Atlanta (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004)
New York Yankees (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004)
4 Times
Oakland (2000, 2001-WC, 2002, 2003)
St. Louis (2000, 2001-WC, 2002, 2004)
3 Times
Minnesota (2002, 2003, 2004)
San Francisco (2000, 2002-WC, 2003)
Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels (2002-WC, 2004)
Twice
Arizona (2001, 2002)
Boston (2003-WC, 2004-WC)
Houston (2001, 2004-WC)
Seattle (2000-WC, 2001)
Once
Cleveland (2001)
Chicago White Sox (2000)
Florida (2003-WC)
New York Mets (2000-WC)
Chicago Cubs (2003)
Los Angeles Dodgers (2004)
 
Division Losers (since 2000)
 
4 Times
Tampa Bay (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003)
Texas (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003)
3 Times
Milwaukee (2002, 2003, 2004)
San Diego (2000, 2002, 2003)
Twice
Detroit (2002, 2004)
Kansas City (2001, 2004)
Montreal (2001, 2004)
New York Mets (2002, 2003)
Once
Arizona (2004)
Chicago Cubs (2000)
Colorado (2001)

Houston (2004)

Minnesota (2000)

Seattle (2004)
Philadelphia (2000)
Pittsburgh (2001)
Toronto (2004)